March 20, 1SS5.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



235 



the ocean is oxygen, nearly balf of the solid crust of the 

 earth is oxygen, while in the air there is but onelifth, show 

 that solid aud liquid oxygen are important factors that 

 must not be overlooked. 



OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS. 



A WEEK'S CONVERSATION ON TUE PLUKALITY OF 

 WORLDS. 



By Mons. de Fontenelle. 



with notes by richard a. proctor. 



{Continued from p. 200.) 

 TUE FIFTH EVENING. 



" T)UT," says the Marchioness, "if you build upon this 



ri resemblance or likeness which is between our sun 

 and the lixed stars, then, to the people of another great 

 vortex, our sun must appear no bigger than a small fix'd 

 star, and can be seen only when 'tis night with them." 



" Without doubt, madam," said I, " it must be so. Our 

 sun is much neater to us than the sun.s of other vortexes, 

 and therefore its light makes a much greater impression 

 on our eyes than theirs do. We see nothing but the light 

 of our own sun, aud when we see that it darkens and 

 hinders us from seeing any other light ; but in another 

 great vortex there is another sun, which rules and governs, 

 and in its turn extinguishes the light of our sun, which is 

 never seen there but in the night, with the rest of the 

 other suns — that is, the tix'd stars. With them, our sun 

 is fast'ned to the great arched roof of heaven, where it 

 makes a part of some Bear or Bull ; for the planets which 

 turn round about it (our earth, for example), as they are 

 not seen at so vast a distance, so nobody does so much as 

 dream of 'em. All the suns then are day-suns in their 

 own vortexes, but night-suns in other vortexes. In his 

 own world or sphere every sun is single, and there is but 

 one to be seen ; but everywhere else they serve only to 

 make a number." 



" May not the worlds," reply'd the Marchioness, " not- 

 withstanding this great resemblance between 'em, differ in a 

 thousand other things ] For tho' they may be alike in one 

 particular they may differ infinitely in others." 



" It is certainly true," said I ; " but the difficulty is to 

 know wherein they differ. One vortex hath many planets, 

 that turn round about its sun ; another vortex has but a 

 few. In one vortex there are inferior or less planets, 

 which turn about those that are greater; in another, per- 

 haps, there are no inferior planets. Here all the planets 

 are got round about their sun, in form of a little Equadnm, 

 beyond which is a great void space, which reacheth to the 

 neighbouring vortexes ; in another place the planets take 

 their course towards the outside of their vortex, and leave 

 the middle void. There may be vortexes also quite void, 

 without any planets at all ; others may have their sun not 

 exactly in their center, and that sun may so move as to 

 carry its planets along with it ; others may have planets 

 which in regard of their sun ascend and descend, according 

 to the change of their equilibration, which keeps thera sus- 

 pended. In short, what variety can you wish for? But I 

 think I have said enough for a man that was never out of 

 his own vortex." 



" It is not so much," reply'd the Marchioness, "consider- 

 ing what a multitude of worlds there are : what you have 

 said is sufEciei-t but for five or six, and from hence I see 

 thousands." 



"Wha'; would you say, madam, if I should tell jo;', 

 there are msny more fix'd stars than those you see? And 



that an infinite number are discovered with glasses, which 

 cannot bo seen by the naked eye 1 One single constellation, 

 where perhaps we count only twelve or lifteou, there arc as 

 many more to be found as usually appear in the whole 

 hemisphere." 



'•I submit," says she, "and beg your pardon; you quite 

 confound me with worlds and vortexes." 



"I have more to tell you, nuulani," said I ; " You see 

 that whiteness in the sky, which some call the Milky-way; 

 can you imagine what that is 1 'Tis nothing but an infinity 

 of small stars, not to be seen by our eyes, because they are 

 so very little ; and they are sown so thick one by another, 

 that they seem to be one continued whiteness. I wish you 

 had a glass to see this ant-hill of stars, and this cluster of 

 worlds, if I may so call 'cm : they are in tome .sort, like 

 the JIaldivian Islands. Those twelve thousand banks of 

 sand, separated by narrow channels of the sea, which a 

 man may leap as easily as over a ditch ; so near together 

 are the vortexes of the Milky-way, that the people iu one 

 world may talk and shake hands with those of .another ; 

 at least, I believe the birds of one world may easily fly 

 into another ; and that pigeons may be train'd up to carry 

 letters, as they do in the Levant. These little worlds are 

 excepted out of that general rule, by which one sun iu his 

 own vortex, as >oon ashe apprars, eil'aces the light of all other 

 foreign suns*. If you were in one of theto little vortexes of 

 the Milky-way, your sun would not be much nearer to you, 

 and consequently would not make any much greater 

 sensible impression on ) our eyes, than 100,000 other suns of 

 the neighbouring vcrtexes. You would then see your heaven 

 shine bright with an infinite number of fires close to one 

 another, and but a little distant from you ; so that tho' you 

 should lose the light of your own particular sun, yet there 

 would still remain visible suns enough, beside your own, 

 to make your night as light as day ; at least, the difference 

 would hardly be perceivM ; for the truth is, you would never 

 have any night at all. The inhabitants of these worlds, 

 accustomed to perpetual brightness, would be strangely 

 astonish'd if they should be told that there are a miserable 

 sort of people, who, where they live, have very dark nights, 

 and when 'tis day with them, they never see more than one 

 sun ; certainly they would think nature had very little 

 kindness for us, and would tremble with horror, to think 

 what a sad condition we are in. 



(To be contitiued.) 



TRICYCLES IN 18 85. 



By John Browning. 



(Chairman of the London Tricycle Cliih.) 

 THE NEW TYPE OF TRICYCLE. 



IN my previous article I said that I considered the 

 Cunard f ront-steerer as a typical specimen of the newest 

 and most improved form of tricycle. Until this type of 

 machine was produced, I confess that I thought it possible 

 that rear-steereis miglit be improved so much that they 

 would hold their own with front-steerers. Now I no 

 longer think so. 



All rear-steering machines have one disadvantage which 

 is an undoubted and serious drawback to their many good 

 qualities — they are, under some conditions, uncertain in 

 their steering down-hill ; not but what they may be ridden 



* Fontenelle here adopts a sounder view of the Milky Way than 

 that which attributes its light to long ranges of stars distributed 

 as to the distances between them like the stars in onr sun's neigh- 

 bourhood. — R. P. 



